


Happy Birthday, Little One

by Queerbutstillhere



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Robin: Son of Batman (Comics)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Batfamily (DCU), Birthday, Birthday Presents, Family Fluff, Gen, I'll probably update tags in the morning when I can see straight, I'm queer, It's Damian's birthday!, or not bc ya know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:48:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25816816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queerbutstillhere/pseuds/Queerbutstillhere
Summary: It's Damian's birthday, and while that never meant anything special to him, his family want to show that they care.AkaFive ways they show that they love him+ One time he tells him he loves them.
Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne
Comments: 6
Kudos: 120





	Happy Birthday, Little One

**Author's Note:**

> I GOT THIS OUT BEFORE MIDNIGHT WE'RE GOOD!!!
> 
> Here is my happy birthday fluff to Damian! I know there's a lot of disagreement about his birthday, but this seems to be the common one, so I wrote this for him!
> 
> Enjoy!

August ninth never meant anything to Damian, and they all knew this. They all knew how little he cared for it. Everyone in the family had learned, long ago, how little he cared for birthdays, and how much he despised birthday parties.

They had made that mistake last year, he had panicked and ran off and hidden from his family for a few hours. Birthdays had never meant good things for him, growing up. Birthday’s meant new trials, new responsibilities, new murders. It meant darkness and death and blood. And Damian  _ feared  _ them now.

So this year, they had all silently, collectively, and yet separately, agreed to do things differently.

1.

Bruce had missed his son’s childhood, and he regretted that more than anything. He wished he had been able to watch Damian grow up, had been able to watch him take his first steps, speak his first words. He wished Damian had been able to go through all the baby milestones at a normal pace, had been able to go to school like any other kid. He wished that had been Damian’s reality. And he wished more than anything, that he had been a better father when Damian had first come to him.

He’d apologized time and time again for that, but even now, he still felt guilty - no matter how much healing he and Damian had done.

When it had occurred to him that Damian’s birthday was that week, he found himself in the crisis of not knowing what he could do. With the other kids, they’d have some small celebration or something, a little party; with Damian, he couldn’t do that. He thought and thought and fretted over this for the whole week, until a thought hit him.

Damian adored his animals more than anything. Their care and quality of life was one of the most important things to him, and he had spent several weeks last year constructing a small barn for Batcow. Except it wasn’t exactly that well constructed. It was more of a lean-to, run in type thing, than an actual barn. And Bruce could fix that.  


He started late Saturday night, skipping patrols for the soul purpose of working on this. And he would work until it was done. 

  
  


2.

  
  


Dick had been eagerly planning for Damian’s birthday for a while now. He had planned to take them to the Zoo, followed by lunch at Damian’s favorite restaurant. He was especially excited for this, because he hadn’t been able to be in Gotham much recently, and was eager to get to spend an afternoon with his brother.

So when Bruce asked him to keep Damian busy on his birthday, he was happy to be able to say that he already had plans for just that.

Now getting the teen out of bed. . . That would be much harder. The curse of their family being mostly nocturnal was that they all slept until noon or later when they were allowed. And Dick didn’t intend to allow it.

He woke up at nine, and joyfully skipped right to Damian’s room, knocking on the door befor letting himself in.

“Wakey wakey, Chickadee! It’s time to get up.”

“Grayson, I will have your skin as a suit,” the newly fifteen year old groaned, rolling from his coffin-like position to hide his face in his pillow.

“Aww, come on, don’t be so grumpy!”

“Go away.”

“Welp, I guess we just won’t go out for our super fun special trip to the zoo.”

Dick turned to walk towards the door.

“Wait. . . Zoo?”

“Yep! But only if you get up and get dressed!”

Damian sat up again, glaring at Dick. He really did look like an angry chick, his hair stuck up in a bit of a mohawk.  


“I’m doing this for the zoo, not for you.”

Dick just snorted. The small smile on Damian’s face told him otherwise.

“Get out so I can change,” Damian mumbled, yawning and stretching. “And for the love of god, please put on something more respectable.”

“Fine fine!”

Dick headed out, going and changing and then jogging downstairs to find Alfred already working on breakfast for the two of them.

“Thanks Alfie!” Dick all but skipped over and kissed the old man on the forehead.

Alfred smiled fondly at him. “Excited for your day out, Master Dick?”

“Yep! I hope it will be good, it’s been so long since I’ve gotten to hang out with Damian.”

Alfred nodded. “Well, don’t keep him all day. I know your father has a surprise for him as well.”

“Yeah, he mentioned that. What is he working on, anyway?”

Alfred just smiled knowingly, but didn’t answer.

Once breakfast had been consumed, and they had both finished getting ready, they took off for the zoo.

Going to the zoo with Damian was always fun. He was like a kid on Christmas, he rushed from each exhibit, pointing at animals, cooing and taking pictures of them, grabbing onto Dick when he got really excited over one. It never got old. Damian chatted much more during these times too, times when he was truly happy. He rarely grinned this much, or this freely, and it made Dick so happy to see.

“You’ve been away for a while,” Damian remarked, as they sat at the Medeiteraian restaurant he loved so much.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I’ve got busy with some work stuff and the Titan’s had me away on a mission for a few weeks.”

“It happens,” Damian said with an easy shrug, sipping his water.

Silence hung over them for a bit, and Dick took the time to check his phone, seeing a few texts from Jason.

“So why did you really bring me out to the zoo today?” Damian asked, drawing Dicks attention back to him.

“What? Does there have to be a reason? I can’t just want to spend a little time with my baby bro?”

“Grayson, do not mistake my intentional ignorance for foolishness,” Damian said, but there was no malice in his voice. “I know what day it is.”

Dick smiled. “Happy Birthday, Damian.”

Damian shrugged and looked away. “It’s just another day.”

“Yeah, I know. Which is why I didn’t try to throw a big party or anything like that. Just you and I, sometime hanging out.”

Damian nodded. “Thank you, Grayson.”

Dick’s phone chimed with a text from Bruce.  


_ ‘Keep him away, I need a little more time.’ _

“Who’s that?”

“Bruce, just wanted to see where we were.”

“Oh. Do we need to go back?”

“Nope! Actually, I needed to swing by Jason’s apartment, so you can come with me!”

“Oh boy,” Damian said with a sigh and an eyeroll. “I can’t wait.”

  
  


3.

  
  


Jason had no idea what to do for the little shits birthday. He remembered last year rather vividly; he remembered Damian freaking out, he remembered butter knives being thrown at his head. He knew better than to try to surprise Damian. But Damian had also given him a very thoughtful gift at his birthday, greatly surprising everyone, so he wanted to do something in return.

It had taken him a while to figure out what to get the kid, and it only came to him when he was overseas and came across an artist's horde.  


He knew three things about Damian: 1) he had a screwed up past. 2) he loved animals. 3) he loved art. He also knew Bruce, Tim and Dick were all doing animal related things, so he wanted to branch out. So he acquired a bunch of high quality art supplies, wrote the sappiest letter he could muster, and wrapped them both up.

He knew Dick would be hanging out with Damian all morning, so he sent his oldest brother a text, asking him to bring Damian over. Dick instantly agreed, and an hour later, there was a knock on the door of his current safehouse. It was really an apartment, he’d been here long enough, but he still had trouble seriously considering it his home. He walked over and pulled open, finding Dick and Damian outside. Damian now reached Dick’s shoulder, and Jason had no doubt he’d spring up over the next year.  


“Hey.” Jason stepped back and held the door open.

“Hi Jaybird!” Dick said, chipper as always.  


A faint smile was still lingering on Damians face. “Todd.”

“Happy Birthday, brat,” Jason said, lightly shoving his shoulder.

“Thank you, Todd,” Damian responded with an eyeroll.

“I have something for you.”

Jason turned and led him to the living room, pointing to the fairly large package on the coffee table. Damian eyed it suspiciously, but walked over, slipping a finger under the edge of the crudely done wrapping paper.

“May I?”

“Yeah, it’s your birthday.”

Damian carefully unwrapped it, barely ripping the paper, being neat until he revealed the old wooden chest. He looked at it for a moment, then up at Jason, eyebrow raised, before undoing the clasp and opening it. He had it angled that they couldn’t see the contents from their position, but Jason smiled as he saw Damian’s eyes go wide, looking at what was inside.

“Jason-”

“Read the letter.”

Damian pulled it out and closed the chest, sitting down on the sofa as he opened the letter. Dick turned to him.

“What is it?” he asked, practically whispering.

“None of your business, goldie.”

Silence settled over the room as Damian read the letter, and Jason could tell he was carefully schooling his emotions, fighting down his smile and blinking to keep his eyes clear. When he looked up and met Jason’s eyes, he was smiling fully.

“Thank you, Jason. I really appreciate it.”

“Yeah, of course, kid. Happy Birthday.”  
  


4.

  
  


Cass stared at the item in front of her. Deciding what to get Damian had been hard. She didn’t get to spend a lot of time with him; she didn’t get to spend a lot of time with any of them, but him least of all. And she regretted that. But there were a few things she did know about him

And one of those was that he was trying to learn more about his heritage. He was using Arabic more and more, and he was planning to go to Saudi Arabia next year. She knew he regretted never having learned before.

And she knew he struggled with feeling connected with the family. He struggled with feeling like he belonged.

So she was really opening this gift would mean as much to him as she hoped.  


Damian was out with Dick for the day, and Cass wasn't sure when he would get back, so she slipped into his bedroom, looking around the nearly organized space. She walked over to the bed, and set the small box on his pillow, a note tucked underneath it.  


عيد ميلاد سعيد صغيرتي

_ Happy Birthday, little one _

  
  


5.

  
  


Tim stared balefully at the goat.

He hated himself for thinking this was a good idea.

And he hated himself even more for knowing it was a good idea.

But dang this dumb goat kept chewing on things.

He had just gone and picked it up earlier that morning, because he knew Bruce was reconstructing the barn and he was planning to just plop the cute little goat kid in with Batcow.  


Except he'd been expecting Bruce to be done sooner, and he still had a few things to pick up for Damian's other gift.

So now he was just hanging out with a baby goat confined in his apartment kitchen. It kept bleating, driving him insane. It also kept pooping and he was so going to have to bleach his floors. He was so incredibly grateful to the Kent's, for helping him pick out the baby and taking care of it for the past few days, but man was he dumb sometimes.

When the call finally came from Bruce, Tim couldn't be happier to pack the little thing up in his car and drive up to the manor. He carried it out to where the old barn had been, and was speechless. It looked so good.

"Tim!" Bruce called, waving to him.

Bruce was a sweaty mess and he had bandages around several fingers.

"Hey, B," Tim called warily, walking over.

"Oh my god that's adorable!" Bruce held out his hand and scratched the little goat on the head.

"Right? Jon picked it."

Bruce chuckled, turning and pointing towards the fenced in pasture where Batcow was already munching away on grass.  


"I figured we'd make the pasture bigger, but I need to be done, Dick says he's running out of distractions."

Tim nodded. "Is there some place I can put her? I don't want to risk Batcow kicking her."

"Sure, there's a pen inside!"

Once the little baby goat was safely in a pen, Tim and Bruce started walking up to the house together.

"He's gonna love it, Bruce."

Bruce shot Tim a small smile. "I sure hope so, Tim. I sure hope so."

+1

  
  


Damian was overwhelmed.

But in a good way.

He felt so happy and full and even though he had hidden it, once he was alone, he couldn't stop grinning.

This was undoubtedly the best birthday in years.

Before, in the league, every birthday had come with a cost. Sometimes it was lives, people he had to kill to prove himself. Sometimes it was his own life. He'd rarely ever been given anything on his birthday, except maybe as a reward, and more often he'd had things taken from him.

When he first came to Gotham, his tenth birthday had gone uncelebrated, because no one had known. His eleventh birthday had just been him and Dick and Alfred. His twelfth birthday had been missed due to some world threatening catastrophe. And his thirteen birthday had just been him and Alfred, and that was when he had decided to form the teen Titans.

His fourteenth birthday was an absolute nightmare, the first time everyone in the family had tried to celebrated it together, and it had gone horrible. He had panicked, and lashed out, and ran away.

So this year, he had made it abundantly clear he didn't want any big deal made out his birthday. And he knew that had gone out of the window the moment Dick had woken him up.

But this day had been so memorable.

The trip to the zoo had been amazing, and exactly what Damian needed. Just some time with his eldest brother, with his first Batman. They got to just spend the morning and part of the afternoon without any danger, just hanging out. Then at Jason's, he hadn't expected the chest full of very high quality art supplies, and the letter . . . Oh god the letter.  


Jason had written about family, and their connection, their shared history, and how he saw Damian, fighting to be good, fighting to undo his past. He wrote about how proud he was of Damian, even if he never showed it, how inspiring Damian was, working hard to do better. And Damian had teared up a bit.

Cass' gift had also made him tear up, and it was such a small thing. He had come into his room to change, having gotten a little sweaty while out with Dick, and found the small box sitting on his bed. The note had taken him back a bit, but once he opened the present, he just grinned. It was a small gold necklace, which read  _ Family _ in Arabic script. He had instantly put it on.

Tim's gift had come in two parts. The first part was revealed when Tim handed him a piece of paper folded in half. He unfolded it to see a picture of a bearded dragon, and it had taken him a moment to understand. The next day, they would go together to get the tank and pick up the little lizard, and Damian was fairly excited.

The second part was revealed to him along with Bruce's gift.

His father had blindfolded him, and led him outside. Damian had been instantly tense because being blinded never meant anything good in his past, but after a decent walk, Bruce took the blindfold off and Damian's mouth fell open immediately.

Bruce had rebuilt the barn for Batcow.

It was just solid wood, no paint or anything yet, but it was already amazing. There was a run in section for her, and then another closed off section for a feed room. Tim, who had apparently accompanied them out, had motioned Damian inside, and showed him a small goat kid, who was in a pen inside the barn. Damian had instantly scooped her up, cooing and fawning over her.

Alfred had spent a considerable amount of time, preparing some traditional Arabic dishes, keeping each one completely vegan and halal, as well as a vegan birthday cake.

And now Damian was sat in the living room, listening to his family chatter, spending some time together before they would all head out for patrols.

He wanted to do something. He wanted to say something to show how much he appreciated all of them, but he didn't know what. He wasn't good with this, with emotions, and feelings and expressing those in words. But he was happy and full of good emotions and he wanted to express that.

The moment silence lingered over the room, he cleared his throat, pulling attention to himself.

"What's up, chickadee?" Dick asked, looking over.

"I just wanted to say." Damian hesitated, looking down at his lap. "That I appreciate all of your gifts, a lot… and, I… I love you all."

Silence hung for a bit, everyone staring at him in what he could only assume was shock. Surprisingly, Tim spoke first.

"I think I speak for everyone here when I say, I love you too, brat."

Damian scoffed, but grinned slightly at Tim.

The others echoed their sentiments, and Dick jumped up, coming over and hugging him.

"Happy Birthday, Damian," Dick said softly.

"Thank you, Dick."

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys liked it! Kudos and Comments are greatly adored!
> 
> Thank you so much to Wiitts for betaing for me! Check them out on both Tumblr and Ao3!
> 
> And thanks to xvivon as well for betaing! Check them out on Ao3 and Tumblr at xvivon!  
> You two made this a lot faster and I appreciate it so much!
> 
> Check me out on Tumblr at Queerbutstillhere and Queerbutstillhere-writes !!! Thank you so much again for reading!!!


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